Chapter XIV: The Habitant of the St. Lawrence Shore

The earliest white settlers on the shores of the St. Lawrence came from France, and the country of their adoption was known as New France. To this very day, not only the language, but the manner of life and most of the social institutions of the province of Quebec, are still emphatically French. And yet the French-Canadians, despite their passionate devotion to their race and their language, their religious creed (Roman Catholicism), and the customs and manners of their ancestors, manifest an irreproachable loyalty to the British Crown. When, soon after the middle of the seventeenth century, the new country was first settled, the land was granted by the King of France to French gentlemen, who became known as seigneurs, or lords of the manor. In return for these grants the seigneurs paid homage to the French King, and bound themselves by an oath to fight for him in time of need. They were also bound to have their land cleared of trees within a given time, otherwise the seigneury was to be taken away from them again. The seigneur in his turn granted slices of his lands to humbler arrivals from France--emigrants, as we should call them nowadays, though they called themselves, and are known to history as, "habitants." Their relation to their seigneur was something like that of medieval vassals to their feudal lord.

Now, in the early days these habitants, or emigrants, were mostly single young men, and naturally, when they settled down on the farms, which they rented from this or the other seigneur, they soon found that they required each a wife to help them in their work, and to cook and stitch for them; but young women were scarce in the colony. Accordingly, the French King, with the view of meeting this want, used every year to send out one or two shiploads of young girls as wives for the habitants. About the time the "bride ships" were expected the young men of the settlements, dressed in their Sunday best, used to repair to Quebec, where the ships landed. There, entering the great hall of the convent of the Ursuline nuns, where the girls were gathered, they each picked out a bride, led her straightway before the priest, and were married without an instant's delay.

The habitant of the present day is, as a rule, happy and contented with his lot, with a great reverence for the customs and habits of his forefathers, and an unwavering devotion to his church. He is fond of society, and loves the dance and the song. His leaning is manifested in the arrangement of the farms in his part of the country. As you steam down the great River St. Lawrence, you cannot help noticing how the farms in what was once New France are laid out in long narrow strips, nearly a mile in length, and all coming down to the river shore. Along these stand the houses, all near the river and pretty close one to another. Here the people grow tobacco, vegetables, and fruit, especially the famous Snow-apple, also known as "Fameuse," with a bright red skin and snow-white flesh. French Canada is also noted for its breed of horses.

The present Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, one of the ablest and most eloquent men in the whole of the British Empire, is a native of French Canada. He has governed the destinies of the Dominion for fully twelve years without a break, for it was in 1896 that he first became Prime Minister of Canada.

High above the great St. Lawrence stands the city of Quebec, which was founded by the French explorer and colonial leader, Champlain, in 1608, over 300 years ago. The city is built partly at the edge of the river and partly on the summit and slope of a bold cliff overhanging the stream. On this higher ground is the citadel, occupying the site of the early fort, which was one of the principal defences of the first settlers during the whole of the stormy period of the Iroquois wars. It was here, too, that the heroic Wolfe, the British General of George III.'s day, defeated the no less heroic French leader Montcalm. Quebec is the seat of Laval University, the most famous centre of Roman Catholic learning in Canada.

Higher up the river, too, is Montreal, the largest city in the whole of the Dominion. In early days it was the chief centre of the fur trade, and, like Quebec, a bulwark against the invading tides of the Iroquois. To-day it is the principal commercial city of Canada and the seat of varied manufactures. Here, again, is a large and famous University, a seat of Protestant learning--namely, McGill University. Montreal has also won fame for herself by her magnificent and merry winter carnival and her great palace built of ice.

The capital of Canada is, however, neither Quebec nor Montreal, nor is it Toronto, the second largest city in the Dominion and capital of the province of Ontario, as well as the seat of several affiliated Universities, and an important manufacturing centre. The place where the Parliament of Canada meets, and, consequently, the capital of the country, is Ottawa, on the river of the same name 116 miles by rail west of Montreal. As a city it is famous for its beautiful and imposing public buildings, the most stately of them all being the Houses of Parliament.